Facebook’s explosive popularity in Southeast Asia is a widely discussed phenomenon today, but only a few years ago, its presence in the region was marginal. In 2008, a year that the social network was expanding rapidly in its core markets, fewer than 5 million users were signed up in the ten countries that comprise the ASEAN Community. By 2012, however, Facebook had trounced all the local competitors and cemented itself as the most popular social network in Southeast Asia, even though uptake in much of the rest of Asia lagged expectations. Why did this happen? Why did Facebook usage grow so quickly in Southeast Asia, and why was growth in East and South Asia more subdued? This report will look at the history of Facebook in Southeast Asia and explore some possible answers to these questions.